The
original "All Valley" tournament trophy prop is now part of the scenery
at the "Hollywood" restaraunt at the Euro Disney Theme Park in Paris.
[Thanks to
Leon Bernardus Huffner, The Netherlands Greatest KK Fan]In the original Karate Kid, one of the actors seen waiting for Daniel
and Miyagi back at the truck before Miyagi breaks the bottles (the guy who taunts
him by calling him Mr. Moto) was credited as "Yahoo 1" played by Larry Drake.
He regularly appeared on the t.v. drama "L.A. Law" as the mentally disabled office
worker "Benny" (I believe was the name). We also believe that we remember him
playing the villain in the Liam Neeson movie "Darkman". [Thanks
to Chris Lozano]

The part of Sensei John Kreese [played so superbly by Martin Kove, pictured left]
was originally offered to Chuck Norris but he declined, not wanting to have his
karate portrayed negatively. Instead, Norris helped the producers find the real
martial artists that were used in the production.

There were many scenes that were planned that didn't make it into the final film.
If you haven't already, why don't you check out our deleted
scenes section?

Speaking of deleted scenes, did you know that the beginning of Karate Kid part
II was originally filmed as the end of the first movie? The producers decided
to save this part for the sequel when it became apparant that they had a good
movie on their hands...

The Karate Kid started filming on the 14th October 1983 and was finished a mere
42 days later. It was a relatively low budget production. It grossed over $100
million at the US box office.

It was not really 'Pat' Morita who plays Mr Miyagi who is doing the fighting in
the movie...or the 'crane' kick on the stump at the beach! ... see who it really
was here...

Broken
Edge actually appeared in the halloween dance scene

The
rock band 'Broken Edge' who supplied some of the music
in the movie, actually were the band playing in the halloween dance scene.

"Daniel LaRusso" was originally going to be called "Daniel Webber"
(his name in the early scripts)

Johnny's Name was originally going to be "Donald Rice" (!)

"Johnny"
was the name of the character of "Freddy" in early drafts.

Daniel's yellow car (given to him by Miyagi) is a 1948 Ford Super DeLuxe Club
convertible

The other cars in Miyagi's yard were a 1948 DeSoto, a 1952 Stuebaker and a 1956
Nash Rambler.
One of modern karate's founding fathers was actually called Sensei Miyagi

UPDATED:
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita [left], who was the actor who played Mr Miyagi
is a honoury member of the 442nd battalion -just as he was in the movie. It was
his idea to add the depth of back story (Internment camps, 442nd battalion etc)
that so closely mirror his own life. He was nominated for an Oscar(tm) for his
efforts. He sadly passed away on November 24, 2005.

Ralph Macchio who played Daniel named his first son 'Daniel' --surely after the
character that made him famous.

Ralph Macchio was
4 years older (he was 22) then his enemy "Johnny" -played by William
Zabka at the time of filming.

Karate Kid was made
by the same producer/director team that brought you 'Rocky'...

Robert Kamen, who wrote Karate Kid, studied martial arts for 20 years after being
"knocked about" himself as a kid. He learned karate and oriental customs
from his own oriental karate teacher -- who became the inspiration for "Mr
Miyagi".

Karate Kid was the title of a DC Comic series that started being published years
before the film.

Karate Kid was the highest grossing video rental in 1985.

Nearly all of the locations used in the Karate Kid really exist! -see our locations
section.

One of the Cobra Kai
is played by Chad McQueen [left], son of
Steve McQueen .

"Chuckie" -One of Daniel's school friends in the movie- is played by
Frankie Avalon Jr.

Some of the scenes in the movie originally seem to have been meant to happen in
a different order. This is given away by Daniel describing his bike as a 'Miyagi
turbo' when he hadn't yet learnt Mr Miyagi's name.

Karate Kid has earnt a suprisingly low 6.9 average vote out of 10 with IMDB users...
despite the fact that almost everyone seems to like it.

Mr Miyagi's janitor room in the movie was actually a car parking space in real
life.

Daniel takes a beating on the same beach as was used for the witches scene in
'The Craft' and the volleyball game in 'She's All That'.

UPDATED:
The Karate Kid Soundtrack [left] is available on CD,
having been produced in Australia on the budget Karussell/Spectrum label.

The Karate Kid was the 500th Movie to be made with Dolby sound.
It was also the first mass produced movie on VHS in Hi-Fi stereo.

Pat Johnson, the man who choreographed the fighting in Karate Kid, also played
the referee at the end of the movie.